A Night in the Office
by Mercedes Bench
Summary: Stress finally caught up with Roy, and he's taking it pretty badly.


So, I doubt I'm the only person who's noticed, but anime crying is much more attractive than it is in real life. Because we are freaking hot messes when we get upset. Well, I guess anime characters are human 2.0. But I got this idea earlier today, and thought it would make a really cute one-shot. Hope you enjoy! 3

Bottling up emotions is a risky business, and one Roy Mustang was quite familiar with. Ever since the death of his friend, Maes Hughes, he had been stewing and trying to hide the powerful emotions born from the incident. But the world seemed set on making life difficult for him, pelting him with stressful and upsetting events, the only sign of any stress relief was a couple pillow-screaming sessions, but they were at most a few seconds long and didn't even make a dent in whatever big ball of stress was brewing inside him.

So it was hardly surprising that he eventually snapped.

Riza carefully opened the door to Roy's office, precariously balancing a stack of paperwork that needed signing. It is very late, and the office was completely deserted, leaving the place feeling extremely lonely. Riza entered the room, glancing at the clock."Sir, we should probably get-"

She nearly dropped the stack of papers out of surprise at what she saw. He was crying. And not normal crying either. It was full-out, near abnormal crying. It sounded as if he was choking up a lung with the force of his sobbing. "Colonel…"

Roy's head, which had previously been buried in his hands, sprung up, revealing extremely bloodshot eyes and blotchy cheeks. His gloves were in even worse shape. The palms were absolutely soaked with tears, and the stains seemed to be creeping around the sides of his hand and up to the fingers in a huge grey splotch. He swallowed thickly, breathing heavily, tears still flowing. He gave an unattractive hiccup before croaking weakly, "Lieutenant-"

Riza sighed and walked across the room. She herself was very upset by the sight of such a normally strong and confident person reduced to a crying mess, and was trying her very best to keep from springing into tears herself. She dropped off the paper and grabbed a chair from the table and dragged it to the desk so she was sitting across from him. "Colonel, what's wrong?" she asked in as soft and gentle of a voice she could.

"Nothing," an unsteady voice replied.

He sniffed and wiped his nose on the back of his hand. "I'm sorry you had so see me like this," he said, aggressively pressing the corners of his eyes with his thumbs and crumpling his face into a scowl. "I'm fine."

Riza rolled her eyes. "We both know that's not true," she replied, "What's wrong?"

Roy's face crunched more, squeezing a few more tears down his reddened cheeks. "Everything. Everything with Maes, and the homunculi, and the Promised Day. It's just…"

Whatever he was going to say next was reduced to more racking sobs. Riza closed her eyes, for half a moment understanding how upsetting the past year has been for him. She reached out a hand and gently pried a hand away from his face, quickly clutching it in both of hers. She very slowly stood up, prompting Roy to follow suit.

She guided him around the edge of the desk and to an open spot. Without hesitation, she wrapped her arms around his torso and propped her chin on his shoulder. She reached a hand around so it comfortably rested on the back of his head. She felt him return the gesture, sobs increasing in volume as he squeezed her closer to him.

Riza began to rub his back and whispered, "I understand. It's okay, just let it out."

Time passed. It was unclear how much time had actually gone by, but it was enough that Roy's crying had lessened considerably, and the most noise he was making was the occasional sniff.

Eventually, he broke the silence with a weak, "We should probably finish work."

"For once, I think work can wait."

Eyyy! It has been so long since I wrote some Royai, and I have really missed it! Good Lord, I need to get my priorities straight.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Love y'alls!

~Siena


End file.
